Macarons v Macaroons

I did a web search the other day…I typed in…. macaroons and what I got was a lot of results for macarons…and the first five listings were all of french macarons…The web is supposed to be so smart…search engines are supposed to give us the best results…but even it does not know the difference .

I had to type in coconut macaroons…and then I got what I was looking for.

Macaroons are basically coconut based…and macarons are nut based…usually almond meal…but you can use hazelnut meal as well or grind up your own pecans or whatever nut you may have on hand

Macaroons are basically flaked sweetened coconut…egg whites , sugar and a little flour….and a flavoring…I like vanilla or almond

and when they are done baking and cooled …I sometimes dip them in some dark chocolate. I do not have a recipe handy but usually on the bag of coconut there is a recipe for these cookies

so this is what a macaroon looks like

Now as simple as it is to make a macaroon and takes up very little time…macarons take up a lot more time…but I find it worth it . I weigh my ingredients using an inexpensive kitchen scale…mine you can also weigh mail on it as well… so much for the kitchen part

so I made here is a raspberry macaron with a champagne buttercreamcheese frosting

115 g Almond flour/meal

30 g freeze dried raspberries…I get mine from Trader Joe’s

230 g confectioners sugar…make sure it is pure and does not contain cornstarch

so in a coffee mill I will pulverize the raspberries into a powder…..I place that into the sifter…and after sifting there may be some seeds still in the sifter…I throw those out …and then sift the almond meal…and then the powder sugar….sift them all together

then you are going to get

144 g egg whites

pinch of cream of tartar

72 g sugar

beat the egg whites on low for a couple minutes…then move to medium speed for another minute or two…as soft peaks form I add the cream of tartar and slowly add the sugar a little at a time I usually divide it in thirds…keep beating until your eggs whites form stiff peaks

then you will take the sifted dry ingredients and fold into the egg whites…but you dont have to be careful in folding in the dry ingredients…actually you want to deflate the egg whites…so as you fold and turn you also smoosh the egg whites up the sides of the bowl…this may take anywhere from 35-50 folding actions…what you want is the batter to be like a lava consistency

Then I put the batter into a piping bag and start to pipe the cookies onto a cookie sheet that i have lined with parchment with a template…I will put another sheet of parchment on top of the template that I created using a cap from some medication bottle that produces a cookie of about 1.25 inches and then before baking I slide the template out

so pipe 2 pans of cookies…this will make 48 shells…or 24 completed cookies…provided none of the shells brake…or you decide to sample…also you will want to drop the pans onto a counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles

from here I let the cookies rest for 30 minutes with a fan blowing across them …before putting them in the oven the surface should be dry to touch…I also bake only one sheet at a time….in a 300 degree oven for 16 minutes…let cool completely and then fill with the champagne buttercreamcheese frosting…but you could fill these with a raspberry preserve or a lemon or lime curd as well

Champagne Butter Cream

this recipe was inspired by Stacy at Wicked Good Kitchen

5 cups powdered sugar

1 cup pink champagne

1/4 t almond emulsion or almond extract

1 cup butter softened

1 cup cream cheese…do not use fat free or neufchatel…your frosting will be too runny

1/3 cup powdered original coffee mate

2 T flour

pinch of salt

pour the champagne into a saucepot and reduce to half a cup

have the powdered sugar in your mixing bowl and slowly pour the hot champagne reduction into the sugar…keep mixing until the mixture has cooled down

add the butter until completely combined

add the cream cheese till completely combined

add the flour …coffee mate and almond emulsion

beat until light and fluffy…if too stiff add a little more champagne or water…if too thin add a bit more powdered sugar